I have devilled with 40k previously but never really got into it properly. I think part of it was that I didn’t really do a good job identifying up front which army would best suit my playstyle. Initially I went with Elder because people said they were powerful and TBH it was against my better judgment but I just like the models or playstyle.

If I am being honest I do like to win however not at the expense of playing an army I do not like and/or does not fit my playstyle. Talking about playstyle in these types of games I lean towards elite armies with a relatively low model count that can also field a big monster/tank/mech or two. Coming from AOS/Fantasy I really like the close combat and magic phases, obviously shooting is incredibly important in 40K so that cannot be overlooked. However, on balance I would like to play an army that gets into close combat quickly, stays in combat and slices and dices its way through units with ease....without being one dimensional.

In terms of models, I have spent hours looking through the ones I want to paint and I really want at least one, preferably two units of terminators and a Godlike character. My favourite terminator models for reference are (Iron Fists, Deathshroud, Deathwing, Thousand Sons and Emperors Children). The other unit I would love to include is an Imperial Knight or Traitor Knight. The rest can be whatever with a preference for Dreadnaughts, Land Raiders or Demon Princes.

My dilemma is that I own very little 40k content and there is so much information it is hard to know where to start. Now with 8th edition coming out it seems like a good time to give the game another crack! I guess the thousand-dollar question is where do I start, which armies are likely to fit my playstyle and which codex’s should I look to pick up initially.

I would say some sort of Marines would do the trick for you. They are a standard in 40K. But with good protection and firepower, they are a high cost per model, so keeping the numbers down. If you want psykers, then perhaps Chaos Marines would be the way to go.